


Hope

by bluemisfortune



Series: ROAN AU [15]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe, Background Relationships, so many background ships but it's a friendship fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-10
Updated: 2017-04-10
Packaged: 2018-10-17 10:47:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10592421
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluemisfortune/pseuds/bluemisfortune
Summary: Yuuma is the one constant in everyone's life. The glue that holds them all together. He's pretty happy to be that.





	

 One of Yuuma’s favourite places in the entire world is the central control room couch, lying with this head in Thomas’ lap as his boss pets his hair. It’s rare for Thomas to be on the night standby shift. He supposes that’s the upside of being the man who sets the shift patterns. Usually when he’s up this late, it’s because something is bugging him. So it’s Yuuma’s duty to keep him company and cheer him up. 

 Yuuma’s known Thomas pretty much half his life. He was only young when Thomas arrived nearly ten years ago. He’d been kept hidden away from almost everyone for months. They all knew he was there though. They all saw his chaser begin prepared.

 Speaking of chasers.

 “How long ‘til I get to actually ride out on jobs, boss?”

 “When you’re ready,” Thomas replies. “Don’t try to rush into danger.”

 “All you guys are out there in danger all the time,” Yuuma argues. “You were way younger than me when you went out hunting. And half the Barian team are the same age as me. Shark’s only one year older and he’s in charge.”

 

 Thomas had always been an amazing hunter. He was always amazing on a chaser. Thomas had been the one to train Yuuma on his chaser. It had been hard not to see Thomas as something of a brother over time. 

 Remembering his own older sister and gran, Yuuma had needed someone older. Thomas had been there. Anger and pain. Hissing and spitting fire like a dragon, growling that Numbers were monsters and there’s no way he was one of them. There was a mistake.

_  “There’s no way they’d have done this to me!” _ he’d yelled.  _ “They wouldn’t have sent me here! They wouldn’t leave me here!”  _

 Yuuma didn’t blame him for being distraught. It’s a common reaction when people arrive at the Archive. Yuuma still remembers screaming and crying, clinging Akari’s hands, their fingers slipping apart as the Paladins pulled them away from each other, 

_  “It’s for the best. Bonding with a Number is unnatural. If he’s not dealt with now, he will only grow into a violent criminal. Be glad you’ve got another child to comfort you.” _

 At the time, he’d been furious his parents hadn’t been there. They’d gone off exploring and Yuuma was being torn away from his family. He understood Thomas’ pain. He understood why Thomas felt the need to yell and scream and lash out. Especially if he’d been torn from his family how Yuuma had been.

 So Yuuma had put his arms around him, burying his head in his chest and promising he wouldn’t be alone anymore. He’d never leave him.

 

 “I don’t want to put you in danger like that,” Thomas says quietly. “You’re important to too many people.”

 “Just a few jobs,” Yuuma argues. “The Barians will look after me.” 

 Thomas sighs and, after a moment of petting his hair, he nods. Yuuma grins and sits up, watching him eagerly. That’s great! If Thomas will finally let him out into the field properly. Thomas sighs and sits back a little. 

 “Fine,” he says. “Next time the Barians go out on a mission Nasch and I feel safe for you, you can go.” Yuuma grins, bouncing on the seat. “If Nasch says it’s ok.” 

 “Thank, boss! You’re the best!”

 He laughs and kisses Thomas’ cheek before getting up and running off. But he pauses at the door, glancing back with a frown. 

 “You ok, boss? You’ve not been the same since that practice run with Shark a few weeks ago. Is everything ok?”

 “Yeah, fine, Yuuma, don’t worry about it.” Yuuma shakes his head. “It’s just the festival, you know?”

 “Yeah, I guess. You’ve never liked it, huh?” Thomas nods. Now Yuuma thinks about it, Thomas has always hated the festival. The first time, he’d thrown an absolute fit and had to be dragged off and put in solitary. “Vector told me about it, you know? He told me about how the festival came about. I can see why you don’t like it.”

 “I guess so,” Thomas murmurs. 

 “Really sad, huh?” Yuuma sighs. “Killing someone so young. Just because he was a Number. And a prince too.” He pauses and frowns. “I don’t know much about the monarchy. But it must have been ages ago right? Before the Paladins, or he would have ended up here.”

 “I guess so.”

 Yuuma puffs out his cheeks a little. Thomas didn’t seem interested. He sighs and clasps his hands behind him. 

 “Before Heartland and the Paladins, there was the Kamishiro monarchy, right?” Thomas nods. Yuuma sighs again. He’s just not getting through to Thomas at all. “Fine. I’m going to go and find Shark. Maybe he’ll talk history with me.”

 “I doubt it,” Thomas mutters. “He’s uneducated and barely remembers a thing about his own past let alone other people’s.” 

 “You’re so negative today,” Yuuma huffs. “I’m going to make sure I win you something super cool at the festival tomorrow.” 

 Thomas nods and Yuuma glares weakly for a moment before running over and hugging him tightly around the shoulders again. Thomas huffs and pushes him off. Yuuma doesn’t fight. He steps away and waves as he runs off, leaving him to sulk. He’ll have to cheer him up somehow. 

 

 As Yuuma turns down the hall in search of Shark, he catches something out the corner of his eye. He frowns and pauses. The windows are pushed open and he leans out. He’s right! He almost calls to Shark, but pauses. Something seems odd about Shark tonight. He’s standing in the ocean up to his waist, looking strangely like a ghost in the mist and moonlight. 

 Yuuma smiles, folding his arms on the window ledge and leaning his chin on his arms, watching Shark peacefully. He’s undressed, his hair loose around his shoulders. A light piece of fabric is wrapped around him loosely like a shawl, floating on the surface of the water and draped around his arms. He’s watching the horizon. He doesn’t know what Shark’s watching, but he looks lovely like that. 

 Yuuma wants to be with Shark when he’s like this.

 But he doesn’t want to interrupt him either, he’s so rarely at peace like that.

 

 Eventually, he longing to be at his best friend’s side wins out. He hurried down the stairs and out onto the little beach in the cove. He runs along the sand, pausing a moment when he notices Vector lying asleep by a small fire, looking rather cosy under the sheets and with both his and Shark’s clothes in piles near by. 

 It’s hardly a secret Shark and Vector are sleeping together. Even Yuuma isn’t blind to it. He doesn’t know why since they’re constantly arguing and fighting, and both declare at every opportunity that they hate each other. He doesn’t understand, but as long as they’re enjoying themselves, who’s he to judge? 

 “Shark,” he calls quietly, approaching the shoreline. Shark doesn’t seem to hear him. So Yuuma strips down to his boxers and tank stop and wades into the water to join Shark. “The water’s kinda cold.”

 “Yuuma?” Shark glances down at him and Yuuma smiles. “What are you doing here?”

 “Saw you from the window. Came to see what you were up to.” He smiles up at Shark, who laughs a little and pushes his damp hair out his eyes and behind his ear. “Are you naked?”

 “I’ve just been having sex.”

 “So, that’s a yes.”

 “Yeah.”

 “You’re shameless.” 

 “You can’t see anything.”

 Yuuma laughs and nods. He nudges lightly against Shark, who smiles down at him. He’ll be glad to get to work with Shark and his team. They’re the best, after all. There’s a reason Shark is the one Thomas takes out and trains for top secret missions. Shark is Thomas’ protege, whether he likes it or not. 

 

 “So, the boss says I’m allowed to come out with you guys next time you have an easy run,” Yuuma says. “If you and him agree.”

 “When have the boss and I ever agreed?” Shark laughs.

 “He likes you really,” he teases. “If he really hated you, he’d ignore you. It’s because he likes you that he spends all his time teasing you.”

 “You and Thomas are close, right?”

 “He’s like a big brother to me.”

 “And you’ve been here a long time, right?” 

 “Mm, like… nearly fourteen years. I was a tiny kid. This place is as much my home as anywhere. Doesn’t mean I don’t want to go back and see everyone, but, I guess I’m sorta used to it here.”

 “So…” Shark pauses and frowns so Yuuma nudges him gently. “Who’s Michael?”

 Yuuma frowns and lowers his head. Not a name he expected to hear from Shark. And if he’s asking about it, Thomas hasn’t told him. He sighs and tilts his head a little, watching the sea and the horizon.

 “You shouldn’t ask that question,” Yuuma whispers. “It’ll upset him. It’ll… it’ll  _ really _ upset him.”

 “Who is he?” Shark says anyway.

 “Do you know how I got through to him? Why I did?” Shark shakes his head. “Because he uses me to forget about Michael. I’m his little brother in his place.” 

 Shark stares down at him and Yuuma smiles weakly. It had stung at first, when he realised Thomas was using him to forget his pain over his own little brother. But he’d like to think that isn’t how it is anymore. That even if he got to see Michael again, he’d still love Yuuma all the same. 

 

 “And… do you know who he was before? You know about Michael. Do you know who he is? Who he was?”

 “I know a bit,” Yuuma replies. 

 It’s nice that Shark is interested in Thomas. Maybe they’ll finally start getting along. Funny, they were talking about the past and now Shark is too. He smiles and tilts his head. 

 “Thomas fits in with the Paladins. He knows them. Doesn’t he?”

 “Why do you think he’s the boss?” Yuuma laughs a softly. He tilts his head and Shark is watching him with a frown. Yuuma sighs and tucks his arms behind his head. “Before he was here, he was in Heartland City.”

 “Trainee Paladin, I knew it,” he hisses. Yuuma shakes his head. He underestimates Thomas. Or purposefully ignores how good he is. “Then what? Some Heartland mook with an odd obsession with those losers.”

 Yuuma laughs, giving a half-hearted salute. “Paladin First Class, Photon Leo.”

 Shark’s eyes widen and Yuuma smiles. He was a real hotshot back in the day. He’d been in training as a Paladin when Yuuma had first arrived at the Archive. Yuuma had seen a young trainee Paladin there when he was snatched from his family. He could never know if that was Thomas or not. He doesn't want to know.  


 “So that’s how they know each other,” Shark breathes.

 “Huh?”

 “I bumped into a Paladin with the boss recently. Thomas knew him. The Paladin knew him too, I think but didn’t seem to recognise him.”

 “Who?” Yuuma says. “Which one?”

 “Photon Dragon. The boss.”

 “Ah, you mean Kaito,” he laughs.

 “How do you-” 

 “Thomas says you made out with him.”

 “He what?” Vector calls from behind them. They turn to see Vector grinning. “You made out with the _Numbers Hunter_?”

 “This is why _Durbe’s_ my best friend,” Shark grumbles. Yuuma pouts. “He talks quietly.”

 “You’re so mean, Shark!” 

 “I’ll be your best friend, Yuuma,” Vector calls. Yuuma sticks out his tongue at Shark and wades back to the shore, wrapping his arms around Vector and cuddling up with him. “Oh, hey, no you’re wet, dry off first. Yuuma!” 

 He laughs and Yuuma presses more against him, giggling as they end up lying in the sand in a heap. He doesn’t know why Vector and Nasch can’t get along. He adores Vector. 

 

 They laugh as they struggle - Vector trying to push off his wet cuddles and Yuuma insisting he needs to be hugged - and Shark returns to watching the horizon. Even if Shark and Vector had some strange thing, he loves them both still. 

 Somehow, Yuuma ends up pinned beneath Vector, completely stuck. They’re both panting and laughing and Yuuma is suddenly aware that Vector is still undressed. And that Yuuma’s wet clothes are clinging to him. 

 “Yuuma,” Vector stammers, voice low and breathless. 

 “Vector,” he whispers back, suddenly feeling very warm. “I-”

 “Kaito…”

 “Will you stop pining?!” Vector snaps sitting up straight and glaring at the water. “It’s really distract- Oh.”

 “What?”

 Yuuma sits up and follows their gaze. 

_  Oh. _

 

 A squadron of Paladins moving across the ocean towards them. An alarm goes off seconds later and Thomas’ voice comes over the tannoy, echoing through the entire facility.

 “Barians, wake up, suit up and prepare of emergency deployment. Engineers, prepare chasers 73, 94, 44, 65, 46, 64 and 54 for emergency deployment. Anna, wake up!”

 Shark and Vector are already running back for the stairs, barely pausing to pull on their underwear and gather up their clothes. Yuuma grabs his clothes and runs after them, the three of them sprinting down the halls and up the stairs towards the locker room rather than risking the lifts being used. They all know it’s not just the Barians going to be called.

 “All personnel cleared for duty, emergency stations. All riders, suit up. _ Anna! _ ” The burst into the locker room and pull open their lockers to suit up as quickly as possible. “Fuuya.” 

 “I’m here,” Fuuya says quietly taking over the coms. 

 “Runway two and three. Get Anna ready to roll out Dora the second she turns up.”

 “Yes, boss!”

 “It’s far too late for a full alert,” comes Ukyo’s voice. “What’s going on, Thomas?”

 “Paladins, sir,” Fuuya replies. “Anna, we need you awake and working Dora, please.”

 The door to the locker room opens again and Thomas strides in, already shrugging off his jacket. Yuuma smiles a little and Thomas pats his head. Not really what he expected for his first real trip out, but he’d take it. With everyone by his side, there’s nothing that can go wrong. 

**Author's Note:**

> This is actually the first piece I wrote properly for the au and I've just been updating it to fall in line with bits I post as I go, waiting for the right time to post it.


End file.
